With the FBI's re-opening of its investigation into Clinton's emails, it's still anyone's game. I, for one, think the 'Brexit effect' will be strong. Also, in an environment of voluntary voting, it's those with the more enthusiasm for changing the status quo that are more likely to go out and vote.

I haven't been following all that closely, so I'm ashamed to say I'm not informed about what's so important about Clinton's emails (if someone can enlighten me, that would be swell!). I will say, however, that I think Clinton will nab it, simply so that the US can announce their first female president.

I'd posit that just about any Democratic candidate other than the one who was anointed would be cruising to a landslide win. Obama's approval ratings are in the 50's, so there's really no real reason why the Democrats couldn't retain the White House. Joe feckin Biden could've won this. Alas for them, money and identity politics trumped (heh) common sense and now they stand a decent chance of losing to a reality TV star.

bitchcraftChief Executive

Posts : 3118Member Since : 2011-03-28Location : I don't know what things will be like in 2 years. I don't have 2020 vision.

It's not an issue I've paid close attention to, but to summarise it, Clinton used a private email server during her time as Secretary of State and later deleted 30,000+ emails. Bit suss etc.

If Trump really sinks the boot in the next days and doesn't have any fuckups of his own (a tall order perhaps), enough erstwhile Clinton voters could sit it out and give Don a narrow win.

#1 She didn't use a state.gov account to conduct official business. #2 She used a personal email account to handle government business.#3 She set up a private, personal, "unsecured" server outside of official channels and hid it in her home to handle her emails.#4 The man hired to run her server did not have appropriate security clearance to handle classified, sensitive information; he was not vetted or screened by the FBI#5 By running her own server she made herself the guardian and the gatekeeper of determining what was a business email and what was a personal email. In essence she was the proverbial fox guarding the hen-house; it was a conflict of interest. Those State emails belong to the people. She has no right to set up a private server and then install herself as the person who decides what gets turned over to the State department after she resigns from her job.

#6 She transmitted CLASSIFIED and TOP SECRET information through an unsecured server, despite claiming that she hadn't. Some of the information was so sensitive even the FBI investigators didn't have top-level clearance to read what was transmitted.#7 19 different devices were used by her (on loan from the State Department) that were never returned; 2 were destroyed with a hammerby Jake Sullivan(?) her deputy.#8 She used "Bleach Bit" to try and destroy any trace of the emails on her server#9 She tried to delete/destroy thousands of work-related emails that she claimed were personal but were not.

All of this was in an effort to keep the American people from holding their politicians accountable; she didn't want an official record of her time as Sec.of State that she wasn't in full control of. That meant she had to set up her own server and control her own flow of information. On top of all that, I fully believe she wanted to hide a lot of what the Clinton Foundation was doing, which was essentially selling future political influence to foreign countries on the premise that she'd eventually become President.

She should have been indicted back in July, but I felt Comey tried to have a King Solomon moment and split the baby in half; essentially claiming there wasn't enough to prosecute her criminally with, but accusing her of gross negligence. I believe he's since had second thoughts. She was absolutely corrupt and guilty and he could have pressed harder to get a criminal indictment. I think he let her off back in July, but he's going to bring the hammer down on her this time. No way is he going to open up this inquiry again, only to walk away from it again and say there's nothing to file charges with.

And yes, this whole thing makes Watergate look like child's play.

She should be doing prison time right now. Lesser state employees have gotten far worse for doing a mere fraction of what she's tried to pull off.

Let us not forget that Sandy Bugler, a security advisor to President Clinton, went into the National Archives after 9/11 and shoved top secret, classified documents down his pants and then walked out with them:

My reading of this is that Reagan-style conservatism is officially dead (1980-2016). The GOP base will no longer tolerate the notion of untrammeled free trade, an activist foreign policy, and anything less than a hard-line on immigration.

Of course, this is space the supposed party of the working class could've occupied, but their focus has been on appeasing donors and dull, rehashed identity politics. I suspect America's white working class has abandoned the party of FDR for good today.

It's been lovely knowing you all. Save me a spot in the fallout shelter, won't you?

To be fair, the other person also would've likely led to a fallout shelter scenario. At least now it will be a tremendous fallout shelter, a yuuge one where you'll win so much you'll grow tired of winning.

I can proudly say that I called it early in the year, on the assumption that Clinton would be the Democrat nominee. Sanders would've been a different story, as he had a better chance of hanging on to the white working class.

It's interesting how so many people are shocked that Trump won. Clearly the majority voted in his favour, so I'm not sure why everyone is so surprised.

Granted, I am only getting my info from television in a country far, far away from the US, and we all know how the media manipulates information.

The media here in the U.S. seem like they are in an existential daze about the whole thing. They really underestimated and even scoffed at how angry the working class is in this country especially in the rust belt which handed him this election. They didn't take Sanders rise as a sign of what was to come and the Democrats thought it was a good idea running with an establishment bore like Hillary who blew it with things like this little speech.

Did she really think she could win "coal country" states like Pennsylvania when she's literally telling people in that part of the U.S. she'll put them out of work? When people are just trying to put food on the table they're not going to risk everything on an environmental policy gamble.

It's been lovely knowing you all. Save me a spot in the fallout shelter, won't you?

To be fair, the other person also would've likely led to a fallout shelter scenario. At least now it will be a tremendous fallout shelter, a yuuge one where you'll win so much you'll grow tired of winning.

'I have post-apocalyptic survival plans, and let me tell you that they're just the best plans. The BEST plans'.